Monday, August 31, 2015

A Tenor For All Time: Plácido Domingo performing in Macau, China, at age 74.

"Music keeps a man’s soul passionate and ageless, as evinced by tenor-baritone Placido Domingo, now well into his seventies. At an age where others are retiring, the opera Renaissance man continues to take to the stage around the globe, showing no signs of slowing down. Coming to Macau for the first time, the opera master was in admiration of the city’s 'phenomenal” growth and its early tradition of Western opera. In turn, he surprised a fully packed auditorium at the Macau Cultural Centre with a Chinese poem-song paying tribute to the city’s colonial history at the end of the concert staged Saturday evening. 'Certainly opera is our life, wherever I go, I enjoy very much to do [perform] concerts,' he told media before a rehearsal for Saturday’s concert. 'After singing for so, so, so many years, I think probably nobody in this hall was born before I started singing. You can imagine how many years I have been singing, but for me, it’s very important and exciting, really, to sing in a place for the first time.' 'I think the public has the

"The second annual Twin Cities Early Music Festival — three weeks of period instrument and early vocal style performances — presented its finale Friday night, an ambitious and largely successful semi-staging of Gluck’s classic 18th-century opera, Orfeo ed Euridice.....A feisty little 10-piece orchestra offered playing that was both lively and consistently in tune — no small accomplishment in the period-instrument world. Even so, under the circumstances, it was probably wise that conductor Donald Livingston cut at least a half-hour out of the score. Two of the singers came from Panama for this production (which was repeated Saturday). These were a young countertenor, Fernando Bustos, who sang Orfeo, and soprano Graciela Saavedra, who portrayed Amore, the Goddess of Love. Bustos brought a sincerity and an emotional vulnerability to the role that more or less carried the evening, and his high tenor, with its poignant naturalness, had none of the steely sound that mars the singing of so many countertenors. As far as variety of vocal expression and coloring, Bustos is probably not yet in the league of David Daniels, the current champ of countertenors who sang Orfeo for Minnesota Opera, but he is clearly on his way. He sang the great lament, 'Che faro senza Euridice?' with such sweetness and tragic dignity that it seemed fresh and new. Saavedra was a saucy Amore with an agile voice, though a couple of her coloratura flights sounded tentative. Linh Kauffman was a warmly human Euridice exquisitely sung. Both Bustos and Kauffman embodied the 'noble simplicity' that Gluck sought in his works for the stage." Read the entire review here and learn more about the festival here. Additional information on Fernando Bustos, after the jump.

Introverted-Extrovert: Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès in a 2013 production of Faust at Opernhaus Zürich is a far cry from his quiet life in Wisconsin. (Photo: Tanja Dorendorf)

"He’s performed on stages across the world singing in iconic roles in Carmen and Don Giovanni but if you're a neighbor of Sun Prairie resident Kyle Ketelsen, you would never know. While living the life a suburban dad of two, he’s pretty low key. On a warm summer day when he needs to practice, the house windows remain shut and Ketelsen jokes that he sings into a pillow or into a clenched fist rather than disturb the peace of the suburbs. 'I mean who wants to hear my voice blaring through their windows, they might be taking a nap,' Ketelsen says.
And yes, Ketelsen is an opera star. The American bass-baritone has hit some of the most famous stages in the world-the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, among others. He’s flexed his vocal cord around roles as varied as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Escamillio in Carmen. So imagine Ketelsen’s 'work day'— the glamorous toreador, Escamillio, woos the gypsy temptress Carmen away from her naive soldier love, José. Unable to bring her back to his heart, Jose kills Carmen in a jealous rage. So for Ketelsen, work is not just another boring day at the office. For 16 years,

Ketelsen has been forging a path in the operatic world but it came to him as an unlikely profession. The Clinton, Iowa native grew up in a home where his mother found creative ways to expose her children to music—they all played instruments and the record player was often spinning the Beatles, Beach Boys and Neil Diamond. The young man had aspirations of flying

On August 27, 2015, Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvasov took to the stage at the Beiteddine Art Festival in Lebanon to perform a concert full of arias and duets including works from Adriana Lecouvreur, Aida, Mefistofele, Otello, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, Rusalka, La Bohème and more. Hear the full concert and see photos from the evening, after the jump. "The Beiteddine Festival is one of the leading festivals in the Middle East. It takes place in a large and magnificent 200-year old Palace in the Chouf Mountains, in Lebanon. The Palace is a jewel of Lebanese architecture with its many courtyards, monumental gates, elegant arcades and leveled galleries. Each year, in the months of July and August, the Festival presents outstanding performances by world famous stars and Lebanese artists. Concurrent with the performances, the Palace houses one or more international art exhibits. The Festival's first edition was launched in the summer of 1985 amidst the war. It came as an act of faith in Lebanon's cultural role and power of creativity, a call for normality amidst the chaos and madness of war. It was born and has grown in very difficult times and made it against all odds. As of 1987, when Nora Joumblat and an Executive Committee took over the organization of the Festival, it gradually gained regional and international recognition. Since 1997, a new step forward is recorded: the external courtyard of the Palace is fitted to host 5,000 persons. On the creative level, the Festival started producing its own performances, particularly Lebanese plays. The variety and the quality of the Festival's activities attract an ever-increasing audience (51,000 persons in 2003) in which the young generation is worthily represented The Festival is a non-profit organization." [Source]

Learn more about the diva's journey from poverty to performing on the great opera stages of the world by purchasing her book here.

"Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family; she struggled during her younger years when she studied music. She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969, followed by a 1970 appearance in Il trovatore in Parma. In the following year, she won RAI's 'Voci Verdiane' award. Between 1972 and 1975, engagements followed in the major European and American opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago (1972); Teatro alla Scala (1973); Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1974); and the Metropolitan Opera in 1975. In 1981, she began a decade-long association with the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, thus broadening her repertoire of Rossini's operas. Beside her many opera performances, she also appeared as Desdemona in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Verdi's Otello in 1986, alongside Plácido Domingo. In 2005 she won the best actress prize Nastro d'Argento, awarded by the Italian film journalists, for her role in Pupi Avati's La seconda notte di nozze. In 1991 she founded Accademia Lirica di Katia Ricciarelli, and, since 2003, she has been Artistic Director of the annual summer Macerata Opera Festival. In 2006 she participated in the reality show La fattoria (Italian version of The Farm) on Canale 5. In 1986 on her 40th birthday, she married Pippo Baudo, a television personality, and filed for divorce in the summer of 2004." [Source]

The 2-CD set will be available September 11, 2015. Pre-order your copy here.

"Prima Donna is an opera composed by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright to a French language libretto which he co-authored with Bernadette Colomine. It is about 'a day in the life of an aging opera singer,' anxiously preparing for her comeback in 1970s Paris, who falls in love with a journalist. It premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester on July 10, 2009 during the Manchester International Festival. The U.S. premiere was presented by New York City Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on February 19, 2012. In March 2014, Wainwright began raising funds via PledgeMusic to record a two-disc album recording of the opera."...."It is vitally important to me that Prima Donna be properly recorded and released so that I can tour a concert version of it in the coming year, and I have decided to do this with the help of both PledgeMusic and the incredible BBC Symphony Orchestra which in turn requires your generous support. Quality studio opera recordings are extremely expensive and too time consuming to pull off these days, and it seems that a once vibrant recording industry is no longer what it was and new methods are needed to get the music out. Though sad, the upside is that everyone in the field agrees that this is a great time to bring the audience into the wonders of the creative process and the myriad of stages the recording of an opera requires. Exciting rehearsals, deep conversations, strange and colorful characters, not to mention many a silly moment, all of this I’m truly excited to experience with you until that glorious moment when the conductor, myself the composer, the orchestra, the singers and the recording crew turn on the red light and put down for posterity my first magnum opus, Prima Donna." [Source, Source] Watch a video interview with Rufus Wainwright discussing how he came up with the concept, as well as footage from the BAM performances, after the jump.

Composer Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna was inspired by an interview he saw of Maria Callas.

"This month, the mezzo sings Tiffany in Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky for her Rome debut. Wallis Giunta’s mezzo boasts a silvery top and a hearty midrange, both deployed with crisp diction in an ever-growing repertoire of modern and classic roles. In November, she makes her German debut as Cherubino at Oper Leipzig, where her other assignments through June are Rossini’s Angelina, Siébel in Faust and even a Valkyrie. A July debut in Frankfurt, as Mercédès in Carmen, follows. An alum of the Met’s Lindemann Program, which she completed in 2013, the Canadian began her studies in Ottawa and Toronto, where her first undergrad assignments were quintessential soprano roles — Mozart’s Queen of the Night and Susanna. Now, she says, 'I have high notes, but I can’t live there. It’s not that I have a bad technique and I’m actually a soprano in hiding. The most colorful part of my voice is the middle. So if anyone ever says to me, ‘I think you’re a soprano,’ I say, ‘Well, yes, I am. A mezzo-soprano is just a different kind of soprano, and that’s the kind I am.'" [Source] Watch a video of Wallis Giunta singing "Parto, parto," from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, after the jump.

Australia's most famous building now is popular for architectural projection mapping on the iconic rooftop.

Famous Builder: Architect John Zaat

"'I JUST got lucky, I suppose ... but it was absolutely mind blowing, being involved in the design of one of the great buildings of the world.' Rosebank man John Zaat was one of the architects who worked on the iconic Sydney Opera House. As a young graduate in 1966, it was a life-changing opportunity for him, and it's a story he loves to share with fellow members of U3A Northern Rivers (Lismore). Mr Zaat is the current president of the group. Although he doesn't run any of his own classes, he regularly speaks about his time working on the opera house and what it meant for his career in architecture. 'Eleven years of my career were spent on that building,' he said. 'I first started work on the initial design in 1966 ... it was my job to design the ceiling in the concert hall. Then in the 1990s I worked on the upgrade program, which was a $120 million program.'" [Source]

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

In April 2014, Carnegie Hall presented a recital of two legendary interpreters: "The superstar team of soprano Dorothea Röschmann and pianist Mitsuko Uchida performs love songs by Schumann and Berg. Schumann’s great love for Clara Wieck is at the heart of this Liederkreis, songs he described in a letter to her as his 'most romantic music ever, with much of you in it.' His marriage to Clara might have inspired his song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben, a celebration of a woman’s devotion to her husband. Schumann’s piano mastery is evident throughout, as the instrument is given a more prominent role than ever before heard in the song literature. Berg offers a fevered view of love in his impassioned Seven Early Songs." [Source] Following the high praise for the performance in New York, Decca releases a full recording of the repertoire. International release date is set for October 2, 2015. See a complete track list for the recording, and watch a video of Dorothea Röschmann discuss working with Mitsuko Uchida, after the jump.

As a follow-up to her Decca debut in 2013, Julia Lezhneva's next release will be an all-Händel disc that drops in October. Similar to the first disc, which featured motets of Händel, Mozart, Porpora, and Vivaldi, this new recording keeps the young Russian star focusing on Baroque. During 2014, the soprano toured with Il Giardino under the direction of Giovanni Antonini in a concert titled "Händel's Italy" that featured works written by the composer between 1706-1710 while in the country, including the operas Rodrigo and Agrippina as well as the oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, all of which are featured on the new release. Adding other works written during that time such as the sacred oratorio La Resurrezione, the psalm Dixit Dominus, the antiphon Salve Regina, and the secular cantata Apollo e Dafne, completes the experience of Händel's time in Italy. Like the first disc and the international tour, she is accompanied by one of the world’s leading early music ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico, conducted by Giovanni Antonini. See the full track list, as well as videos of Julia Lezhneva singing Händel, after the jump.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Opera News magazine has revealed a new cover layout with its September 2015 issue featuring soprano Diana Damrau. In an attempt to make the magazine more relevant to the popular masses, they may have taken a page out of Vanity Fair's typography handbook. Most notably is putting Ms. Damrau's given name in larger print while putting her surname in italics, which just inverts the concept VF uses. It's easy to compare with several other recent issues of VF and

almost feels like ON has lost its own unique identity. Even going back as far as 1990 when Madonna graced the VF cover with her pearls and plunging neckline like Ms. Damrau in the current ON issue. The Metropolitan Opera Guild publication has typically debuted a new wordmark every decade since its inception in 1936. The latest may be coming a bit early, but it might have something to do with the recent addition of publisher Diane Silberstein in May 2014. Perhaps the new look will help the magazine to gain attention on newstands for as long as it continues to remain in print before going strictly digital. Below are some of the most recent wordmarks over the last 20 years. Take an historical look back at the Opera News cover changes from the last 79 years, after the jump.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Controversial electronic artist Peaches, from Canada, releases her sixth album, Rub, in September. She has a new single, "Light In Places," out now, and will tour later this year:IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS SINCE YOUR LAST RECORD, I FEEL CREAM. WHY THE BREAK? I was tired of that cycle of making an album and touring for two years, and then doing it again. There's no life in between, and no chance to do anything else.YOU SANG AN ITALIAN OPERA IN THE MEANTIME? Yes, and did my own version of Jesus Christ Superstar, called Peaches Christ Superstar. I was really pushing myself as a singer, and I didn't really want to have to change my attitude to music, just to pacify my guilty pleasure of singing opera. I had to find another way to do it. [Source]"Merrill Beth Nisker (born 11 November 1968), better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms, and for their use of sexually explicit lyrics. She plays her own instruments for her songs, programs her own electronic beats, and produces her own albums. Her songs have been featured in movies such as Mean Girls, Waiting...,Jackass Number Two, My Little Eye, Drive Angry, and Lost in Translation. Her music has also been featured on television shows such as Lost Girl, The L Word, Ugly Betty, South Park, 30 Rock, True Blood and has been used for the promotion of Dirt. Peaches performed guest vocals on Pink's album Try This, on the song "Oh My God", on the Chicks on Speed album 99 Cents, on the song "We Don't Play Guitars", on Christina Aguilera's 2010 album Bionic, on the song "My Girls" (which was produced and co-written with Le Tigre), and recently on Major Lazer's 2013 album Free the Universe on the song "Scare Me" featuring Timberlee." [Source]
Watch a live performance of the most famous song from Peaches, after the jump.

Anna Netrebko and fiancé Yusif Eyvazov attend the 40th Anniversary of Plácido Domingo's Salzburg Festival stage debut. Performers for the July 30 concert included Maria Agresta, Ana María Martínez, Krassimira Stoyanova, and Rolando Villazón. See a photo of the singers on stage from the Gala, after the jump.

Soprano Renée Fleming is known for singing the Germanic repertoire of Richard Strauss, but it is the music of Alban Berg that continue to surprise audiences with its intensely difficult vocal line and soaring range. Her first foray into the recorded repertoire of Berg began in 1996 when

she partnered with The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under the direction of James Levine to record "Lied der Lulu" from Lulu Suite and excerpts from Wozzeck for Sony Classical. The next installment of the 20th century composer came when Ms. Fleming collaborated with Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic for a live recording of the Sieben frühe Lieder in 2005. A decade later, she is releasing a new disc accompanied by the Emerson String Quartet: "This release unites on record for the first time Americas reigning star soprano Renée Fleming and its premier string quartet, The Emersons, to take us on a journey into the twilight world of Vienna in the 1920s and 30s in music imbued with late romanticism and burgeoning modernism. Berg's Lyric Suite is a work of intricate, complexity believed to have a secret

dedication and to outline a secret programme relating to Berg's affair with Franz Werfels sister (Werfel was married to Mahler s widow, Alma). Theodor Adorno called the work a latent opera and in its sixth and final movement, the Largo desolato, Berg introduces the soprano voice and quotes Wagner's Tristan motif to evoke his doomed, impossible love. This was still secessionist Vienna: a world of paintings by Klimt, psychoanalysis by Freud and a musical life where you could hear Bruno Walter conduct Mahler and Clemens Krauss lead the operas of Richard Strauss. Egon Welleszs highly expressive setting of Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning was one of the last works he completed before leaving Austria ahead of the Anschluss in 1938. It is heard here in its original version for soprano and string quartet. Barrett-Browning was one of the most popular English poets of the Victoria era, although Wellesz turned to

German translations by Rainer Maria Rilke for his setting. Renée Fleming is famed for her intense and luxurious (Evening Standard) performances of Richard Strauss and Korngold, Berg and Mahler. Her sumptuous sound is uniquely suited to this repertoire. As Edward Seckerson wrote of her fin de siècle recital at the Barbican in 2012: 'We were back in Viennas golden age and it seemed like that was where she had always belonged.'" The disc will be released internationally on September 11, 2015. Pre-order your copy here. [Source] See the full track list, watch a video of Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet performing Berg's Lyric Suite, and see more photos, after the jump.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Soprano Lise Lindstrom has sung the title role of Puccini's Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Les Choregies d'Orange, and many other opera companies around the world. (Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

Critic Alex Ross brilliantly covers the classical music-infused sequences of the new Tom Cruise thriller Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. From opening scenes featuring Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro overture to extended excerpts of Puccini's Turandot. Although actors portray the opera roles of Turandot (America Olivo) and Caláf (Jesus Alvarez), the parts are sung here by Lise Lindstrom and Gregory Kunde under conductor Philippe Auguin (played by Nicholas Lupu in the film). Most of the action takes place at the Vienna State Opera. There's even a splash of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony thrown in for classical good measure. And it is probably no coincidence that the femme fatale of the film, played by Rebecca Ferguson, is named Ilsa Faust. Hélas, no Gounod is found in the film. Read the entire review by clicking here. Watch a clip of Lise Lindstrom singing the role of Turandot, after the jump.

Soprano Renée Fleming was the inspiration for Ann Patchett's diva in her novel Bel Canto.

"In this interview with Chicago Tonight's Eddie Arruza, Renée Fleming visits the set of Bel Canto, a new opera by composer Jimmy López and librettist Nilo Cruz, that she has curated for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and which will be premiered on December 7, 2015." Watch the video interview, the LOC announcing the world premiere of the opera, and a behind-the-scenes photo, after the jump. "Ann Patchett's best-selling novel Bel Canto took the literary world by storm — now, in a new work curated by Lyric's creative consultant, Renée Fleming, this riveting story inspired by a real-life event becomes a powerful opera.
Superstar American diva Roxane Coss has flown to Peru to sing at the vice president's home for a visiting Japanese mogul who is an opera buff. Dignitaries of every nationality are there — but an international crisis explodes when terrorists storm the mansion and take everyone hostage. Isolated for months, unlikely alliances form between captors and captives as fear and anger mingle uneasily with desire and even love. Music is the one universal language — but can it draw forth the humanity that exists in us all?
An extraordinary international cast is led by Danielle de Niese, who caused a sensation as Lyric's Cleopatra in 2007. Sir Andrew Davis teams up with Kevin Newbury (Anna Bolena) for this world premiere with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz and music by Jimmy López, a native of Peru and 'one of the most interesting young composers anywhere today.' Chicago Sun-Times" [Source] For more information about the opera, click here.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

"It's a throwback to a time when Harlem was still a rural village and not yet legally part of the city. An old clapboard house, widely considered to be the oldest single-family home still occupied in Harlem, has been sold for $3.6 million to a new owner who plans to turn it into a home and practice facility for struggling young musicians, the Daily News has learned. The famed wooden property, at 17 E. 128th St., dates back to 1864 and is one of the few surviving frame houses in the neighborhood. It was landmarked by the city in 1982. The new owner, San Francisco-based e-commerce executive Jack Stephenson, told the Daily News that he plans to lease the property to his friend, famed opera singer Lauren Flanagan [sic]. Flanagan will turn the house into a new location for Music & Mentoring House, a not-for-profit organization providing upscale affordable housing and mentoring to students studying in the arts.'She takes music students in a gives them room and board, feeds them, makes their beds and

The new Harlem location for Music & Mentoring House is in the center with the green stairs.

gives them instruction in music,' Stephenson said. 'There are boot camps and classes on how to get by in the business and she invites many famous friends like Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the musical Wicked to come talk to them.'....The stunning French Second Empire-style home has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, six working marble fireplaces and a country kitchen that leads outside into a garden. The house has remained the same, even as the neighborhood has grown and evolved around it and still has its original veranda, a pair of doudle-leaf Itlaianate doors, wood-framed windows and a sloping mansard roof." [Source] For an in-depth study of the past property owners, including Carol Adams who was once a famous member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, click here. More photos of the house can be found after the jump.